New Sunsail Fleet - Solent

[Talulah]

I was out and about in the Solent this weekend.
The new Sunsail fleet out of Port Solent were having a non-race due to lack of wind.
I have to say the new fleet in their new livery looked pretty impressive.
They were all branded as 'Sunsail Racing' and at times the branding did look a bit like a Rothmans cigarette packet but a big improvement over the old fleet.
Good for corporate charter when you want identical boats. (Not recommended for family charter as missing some of the luxuries.)
Meanwhile the old fleet is up for sail.
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 @ £38k.
(Overpriced in my opinion.)
If you see an old Sunsail Jeanneau it could be a new owner so no need to keep such a wide berth.

 

[Mark-1]

I have to say the new fleet in their new livery looked pretty impressive.

It looked to me like all the new ones are transmitting an AIS position. Added quite a lot of clutter. Not a problem AFAIC but a glimpse of the future, I think.

 

[Talulah]

I also noticed they were all advertising Garmin.

 

[Sailfree]

We were out sailing in the Solent on Saturday and saw this new fleet of F40's. Looked good.

I wondered what an F40 was and understand they are a development from the Benneatau First.

Are they specific to Sunsail.

We sailed through the fleet in the afternoon and I used the fleet to explain to my guests about sail setting. They were beating and it was noticable that a number at the back had diagonal creases in the beam where the boom was being hauled in/down too much.

They looked good in their bright colours and as much as other like to criticise Sunsail they must be responsible for introducing many to sailing.

 

[haydude]

Been on one of them, impressive kit, but what a rubbish flimsy boat is the Beneteau F40! I suppose they will not last long.

 

[Alfie168]

I've sailed the old fleet about eight weekends and for most boats there is nothing needed other than some TLC to get them into reasonable fettle. I havn't got 38k to spend and I don't sail my own boat enough. A few have had bad bashes, but most just have a few dings here and there.

Assuming I can get my health back on track I might be having a go in the new lot in October. Hope so.

Tim

 

[Sailfree]

Been on one of them, impressive kit, but what a rubbish flimsy boat is the Beneteau F40! I suppose they will not last long.

I am sure if we search someone said the same about the new fleet of Sunsail Jeanneau Sunfast36's about 8yrs ago.

They have been sailed and raced so hard that each must have done the equivalent of 120yrs of normal sailing but yes your right they don't make them like they used to!!

If they are the Beneteau egg crate type hull though the F40's will not reveal the damage done by groundings until they seriously break! Sunsail exclusion zone round the Bramble Bank soon I expect!!

 

[Resolution]

I am sure if we search someone said the same about the new fleet of Sunsail Jeanneau Sunfast36's about 8yrs ago.

No- we said it about the SF37s which replaced the much more solid SF36s!

 

[andyo]

I was racing on one of these this weekend so have some comments (I'm not a very experienced racer though.)

Firstly, we didn't have diagonal creases in the main, as we had a number of dinghy racers aboard who were forever fiddling! BUT, it was their early introduction to big yacht racing and they enjoyed it.

Overall, I liked the F40 - cockpit is roomy, lines led aft nicely, except for the topping lift. I think in a bigger sea the cockpit may be a bit exposed, as it's not very deep. Larger beam means moving around is easier except for the huge wheel, which is difficult to get around when moving back to helm. Visibility good forward; spinnaker pole arrangement better than F37; we dropped the spinnie though the main hatch, as forward one looked too small.

Below is pretty standard but galley is small and not much general storage space.

As the OP said, not really designed for family or group cruising, but for a w/e racing or pottering in the Solent, pretty adequate.

 

[haydude]

As the OP said, not really designed for family or group cruising, but for a w/e racing or pottering in the Solent, pretty adequate.

I couldn't possibly see myself spending a night on one of them although they all come with heating.

I confirm, getting round to the helm is a nightmare in more than a F4, a slippery crawl back with nowere to hang but the wheel! Watch for your neecaps!

 

[Blue5]

So given that they are primarily for playing in The Solent what is the point of fitting AIS?

 

[lumphammer]

So given that they are primarily for playing in The Solent what is the point of fitting AIS?

So that Sunsail can find them when they get lost

 

[dt4134]

They were beating and it was noticable that a number at the back had diagonal creases in the beam where the boom was being hauled in/down too much.

Usually means the backstay is on too tight.

 

[Sailfree]

Usually means the backstay is on too tight.

Are you sure, can you clarify please - sorry just noticed that my post states in the beam when I meant to say at the back (leach) of the main.

Surely too tight a backstay would bend the mast and leave the leach slack while if the boom is hauled down/in using the mainsheet or kicker you get a series of creases running down parallel to the leech.

Stand corrected that the last ones were Sunfast 37. The fact that many considered these lighter than the 36's they replaced illustrates my point that the understanding of the strengths of modern materials had lead to much lighter but perfectly adequate designs providing we ignore the argument of being caught in a severe storm (heavy boat may -perform best but a lighter faster boat avoided the weather etc!).

Can anyone confirm how many years these 37's were used for. I have seen them being raced hard by often inexperienced crews so they were a testament to how rugged they actually were! I wonder if anyone would care to speculate on their equivalent sailing life in normal usage as as far as I could tell they were raced or on charter nearly every weekend.

Is the F40 a derivative of the Beneteau First built specifically for Sunsail or is it a standard production boat available to all?

 

[dt4134]

Are you sure, can you clarify please - sorry just noticed that my post states in the beam when I meant to say at the back (leach) of the main.

Surely too tight a backstay would bend the mast and leave the leach slack while if the boom is hauled down/in using the mainsheet or kicker you get a series of creases running down parallel to the leech.

It's known as luff starvation. The backstay bends the mast and pushes the middle section forward, so you get creases from about halfway up the luff down to the clew of the mainsail. Pretty much standard on any bermudan mainsail.

You're right, bending the mast with backstay tension does open up the leech and twist off the head of the sail.

If the boom was hauled down very hard you'd probably get creases parallel to the leech but I've never trimmed a mainsail that badly. Long before you get there the sail would be too flat with too little twist and you'd be going far too slow. Although to be fair you did say they were last.

The text books do say strap everything in tight in light airs, but IMHO that means when there is absolutely no wind and there's a bit of slop to rock the boat.

 

[Sailfree]

If the boom was hauled down very hard you'd probably get creases parallel to the leech but I've never trimmed a mainsail that badly.

They were beating in light airs and the ones at the back managed to do exactly that!

 

[Seajet]

As with anything with Sunsail written on it, a metre thick layer of anti-collision foam padding at every extremity - and noise emitting orifice including the humans - would be very gratefully welcomed by the rest of us Solent sailors; and at least the AIS could give others a clue as to which harbours are blocked out by a swarm of them...

 

[Boreades]

I feel duty bound to report that my company is one of the offending parties that did its best to trash their previous fleet of Sunfast 36's.

IIRC, it was in 2005, we hired three of their boats + skippers for our novice crews. The winning team was our ladies-only entry, which cheated horribly by listening to their skipper and doing what he said, including using the counter-currents near Cowes to get around the light winds.

Whereas I was lumbered with Senior Management who insisted on telling everyone loudly they knew what to do... long sigh ... you can guess the rest.

 

[Alfie168]

As with anything with Sunsail written on it, a metre thick layer of anti-collision foam padding at every extremity - and noise emitting orifice including the humans - would be very gratefully welcomed by the rest of us Solent sailors; and at least the AIS could give others a clue as to which harbours are blocked out by a swarm of them...

I'm coming to get ya.........

Tim P.S. Never bumped one yet, nor lost any deposit..but we have seen one, maybe two over the years, but always intrafleet and never a third party. We do our thing in October anyway and the Solent is not jam packed as a rule.

 

[semisimple]

I was racing on one of these this weekend so have some comments (I'm not a very experienced racer though.)

Overall, I liked the F40 - cockpit is roomy, lines led aft nicely, except for the topping lift. I think in a bigger sea the cockpit may be a bit exposed, as it's not very deep. Larger beam means moving around is easier except for the huge wheel, which is difficult to get around when moving back to helm. Visibility good forward; spinnaker pole arrangement better than F37; we dropped the spinnie though the main hatch, as forward one looked too small.

Below is pretty standard but galley is small and not much general storage space.

As the OP said, not really designed for family or group cruising, but for a w/e racing or pottering in the Solent, pretty adequate.

I was out on one this weekend as well!

Brand new and overall I liked it, compared to the 37's. Cockpit not too happy with, as you say too exposed, we had water sloshing in it on Saturday which was strange given the sea was flat.

Spinnie drop through forward hatch was okay, but I was a bit worried of it ripping. Not a big fan of electric flush toilets (with no manual redundancy), only an electric gas switch (with no backup) - catching my drift? Lose the battery and you lose the heads.

Crappy fittings down below that won't last a year, no flipping hand holds on deck in convenient places, wind gauge completely unreadable from helm position and the instrument panel one of the first things to get ripped off if someone stumbles across it in a good wind, but the boat itself was a fun racer.

Oh did I mention the tangled exposed electrical wires in the water tank locker that were submerged in our case as the bilge pump wasn't working too well?

So yes, typical sunsail, good boats, crappy fittings and utterly useless handover crew. We knew more about the boats than they did. But a good weekend.

As with anything with Sunsail written on it, a metre thick layer of anti-collision foam padding at every extremity - and noise emitting orifice including the humans - would be very gratefully welcomed by the rest of us Solent sailors; and at least the AIS could give others a clue as to which harbours are blocked out by a swarm of them...

haaha - Believe me I tried my level best to switch the AIS transponder off but had no luck. I could stop it beeping at me every 10 seconds with 'collision warnings' but couldn't switch it off.

The AIS is seriously going to be a nuisance, cluttering up all our screens in the solent when they're out.